Category: Albuquerque

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ABC Cajun Seafood & Noodle House – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Although popular myth attributes the introduction of pasta in Italy to Marco Polo, pasta’s origins in Lo Stivale can be traced back as far as the 4th century B.C.  That’s when the Etruscan civilization-which existed in the Tuscany region from the 8th to the 3rd century BCE–began the centuries old love affair between Italians and pasta.  Culinary historians agree that pasta’s earliest roots begin in China, during the Shang Dynasty (1700-1100 BC), where some form of pasta was made with either wheat or rice flour. Pasta also appears to have been part of the ancient Greek diet in the first millennium B.C.  Africa also had its own form of pasta (made with the kamut crop). Despite being first to create…

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Blake’s Lotaburger – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Blake’s Lotaburger is a New Mexico only institution founded in 1952 by long-time proprietor Blake Chanslor who owned it for half a century before selling it in 2003. While the marquee may still carry Blake’s name, the 76 store franchise with a presence in most of New Mexico’s larger cities and towns (23 in all) is now owned by Brian Rule, an Albuquerque resident.  On April 10, 2009, Chanslor passed away, having left a legacy based not only on having founded a New Mexico institution, but for his philanthropic endeavors. Thankfully, Lotaburger has, for the most part, retained the high quality that has allowed it to thrive despite the onslaught from deep-pocketed, worldwide corporate megaliths.  At least that’s the case…

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Thai Heritage & Vegan – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Who among us hasn’t learned at least one thing about Thai culinary heritage from The Big Bang Theory? In a 2011 episode, for example, we learned that according to Thai tradition the last morsel of food, the greng jie, goes to the most important person in the room. At least that’s what Sheldon tells Penny when she reaches for the last remaining dumpling. Thanking everyone for the honor, she devours the dumpling. Sheldon’s retort: “I’ve seen pictures of your mother. Keep eating.” Some of us learned that Thai food is meant to be eaten with forks not chop sticks though in Thailand, they don’t put the fork in their mouth. It’s simply a tool to put the food on a…

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Bama’s 1865 – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

When we tell people we lived in Mississippi for eight years their typical reaction is something akin to “OMG, that must have been terrible.”  Lumping Alabama and Louisiana into their diatribes, they typically perceive we lived in a poorly educated, mostly rural and unabashedly racist region.  It surprises them to learn that New Mexico ranks below those three states among the least educated states in the country (only West Virgina ranked lower).  We lived in Ocean Springs on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, an almost contiguous metropolitan area from New Orleans to Mobile.  It’s as modern as you can get.   In terms of racism, the Deep South has made significant strides and isn’t as racist as the Boston area was…

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La Sirenita – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Our friends, John Martin and Lynn Garner and I couldn’t help but laugh. There before our very eyes was the depiction of a meme come to life. In the dining room of la Sirenita was a papier Mâché reproduction of the bottom half of a mermaid. It reminded us of a meme we recently shared.  That meme depicted a grizzled sailor marooned on a desert island.  On the first panel of the meme the sailor smiled lasciviously as a beautiful and buxom mermaid approached the island.  The second panel shows the sailor cooking the bottom half of the mermaid on a rotisserie.  Yeah, it’s gruesome, but come on, it’s funny, too. The bottom half of a mermaid wasn’t the only…

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Duran’s Central Pharmacy – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

In an early episode of the Andy Griffith Show, while contemplating a job offer in South America, Andy tried to assuage his son Opie’s concerns about leaving Mayberry. Instead, he wound up confusing Opie by explaining that people in South America ate something called tortillas. Opie wondered aloud why anyone would eat spiders (tarantulas). Had Opie ever tasted the delicious, piping hot, just off the comal 10-inch buttered orbs at Duran’s Central Pharmacy, it’s unlikely he would ever confuse those grilled spheres with any arachnid. That’s because Duran’s features some of the very best tortillas of any restaurant in New Mexico. These are not the flavorless, paper-thin, production-line, machine-fashioned orbs you find at some restaurants (can you say Frontier Restaurant).…

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Slate Street Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

In 2005, Slate Street and an eponymous bistro just north of Lomas became the toast (a garlicky bruschetta) of the town. The Slate Street Cafe opened its doors in July, 2005 in a heretofore lightly trafficked, relatively unknown street north of Lomas. Nestled in the heart of the legal district, the Slate Street Cafe is so, make that Soho cool. Its sleek, modern, high-ceilinged dining room, looming wine bar and capacious patio is frequented by some of Albuquerque’s most hip and beautiful people. It’s a breath of fresh air in a burgeoning downtown district where revitalization doesn’t always appear to be working. The Slate Street Cafe is the braintrust of a proven and very successful pedigree whose bloodline includes founding…

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Cake Fetish – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Americans are absolutely food obsessed!  It’s become alarmingly obvious in our culture of caloric overachievers that few of us miss any meals. It’s also telling (yet seemingly innocuous) that many of the terms of endearment we use for one another are related to food.  Terms such as honey, sugar, pumpkin and others are regularly used by sweet-talking lotharios of both genders. One term of endearment which has grown out of fashion is “cupcake” which in today’s vernacular refers to a woman whose front and back body fat hangs over the waistline, giving the woman the “top of the cupcake” look. While “cupcake” may have become an intended compliment which will get your face slapped, cupcakes themselves have been reestablished as…

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On The Flip – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Though I pride myself on having a sesquipedalian vocabulary, very often pop culture vernacular escapes me.  Even food memes borne of pop culture are well over my head.  If you’re familiar with or use such terms as “good soup,” “cheugy,” “phone eats first,” “glizzy” and “caviar bump,”  you must be from the Gen Z generation.  Were I to use these terms, it would make me seem like a patronizing old fossil trying to be cool. During a December, 2023 visit to the Tin Can Alley, my Kim and I came a restaurant with a curious name neither of us could comprehend.  We quickly dismissed the notion that “On The Flip” had something to do with Albuquerque drivers extending their middle…

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J’s Var-B-Q – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Step into J’s Var-B-Q and the first thing you’re inevitably going to notice is the aroma of smoked meats wafting toward you.  The bouquet of sweet and succulent smoke envelops you like a warm blanket on a cold night.   It’s a comforting smoke sure to elicit involuntary salivation.  It’s a siren’s song luring you to the counter where you place your order from a tempting menu of meats, sandwiches, sides, specialties and desserts.   If the doors to J’s Var-B-Q were to literally stay open, the rapturous redolence of smoked meats would escape onto Montgomery and traffic would be snarled with motorists (maybe even a vegetarian or six) making their way to this bodacious barbecue restaurant. The second thing…

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Habibi House – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno

Before Al Gore invented the internet, it wasn’t easy for logophiles (lovers of words) like me to figure out what some words meant.  “Lover of words,” in my case was an understatement.  I was obsessed about learning every new word–its etymology (origin, definition and context, even what it used to mean) I came across.  It’s a wonder my parents (both educators) didn’t put this precocious, pedantic child up for adoption. Dictionaries were of little help as their content was mostly limited to English words.  The Velazquez dictionary was helpful when I wanted to learn a new Spanish word, but that, too, was limiting.  Alas, no comprehensive resource seemed to exist to sate my curiosity. Here’s an example of my dilemma.  The…